Rain Under the Mountain
Chapter One- The Beginning Alone. Abused. Unloved. Clover the RainWing felt these feelings all day, every day. She had nobody to talk to-or, nobody worth talking to, anyways. Nobody to play with (nobody ever, in her six and a half years of life). Nobody to argue with. Well, her supposed ‘guardians’ argued with her all the time, but those ugly dragons didn’t count. She wanted a young, good-tempered dragon to be with, not three old, disgusting dragons. As the RainWing sat in her small ‘room’- an extremely tiny cave – she thought about the thought that ran through her mind every day: what it’d be like to be in your own tribe. Her only ‘companions’, if they deserved to be called that, were definitely NOT RainWings. Star was a SkyWing, Deathrock was a NightWing, and blob-face Pelican was a SeaWing. Clover had overheard Pelican and Star talking about their children before; when she was younger, she had asked them if their children could come, but they had never agreed. They don’t want me to ever have any fun, thought Clover, flustered. Her scales flashed emerald green as she sighed. Just then, Clover could hear footsteps outside her cave, and by the squelching of webbed-feet it sounded like Pelican. Although he was the oldest of the guardians-which she thought would make him nicer and gentler-he was REALLY grumpy. Her scales quickly ate up the green and replaced it with rainbows of colors a second before the ugly SeaWing plodded into the cave, throwing down a cow. “Eat up,” Pelican grumbled, and without another word he stepped out of the room. The sad emerald green colored flooded her scales again in displeasure. As she ate the cow, she could hear the guardians talking in the other room. “Should we be talking so close to Clover’s room? She could hear our plans,” grumbled Deathrock’s voice. “Who cares? She can’t escape anyways,” This was Star, the youngest of her miners, who’s the meanest of the guardians. “Let’s just get this done. I want to get rid of the little brat.” ‘Get rid of’ must have meant killing her, Clover thought with horror, flame-red rushing over her scales. I got to get out of here! She thought, exasperated. Just as she finished the cow, Clover heard Star say, “I’ll do it tonight. I’m the strongest, and I can just catch her all on fire before she wakes up! She won’t have time to use her poison.” Clover whisked the cow bones into an extremely shallow river which flowed through her cave. How can I get out? I can’t go through the river. Maybe through the Sky Hole. She looked through the hole in the top of the ceiling. When she was younger, she tried to escape through the hole, but the three miners had seen and chained her to a stalagmite for two days without food. Could she escape now? Star, Deathrock, and Pelican would be snoozing away. Maybe she could. Maybe she could really escape. Maybe this is the day that she’d free. Away from this awful place. Away from these ugly blobs of camel spit. And maybe, to her home, where she belonged. Chapter Two- The Chaining and the Fight Clover flew up to the Sky Hole and stuck her graceful snout into it. I hope this works, she thought, I REALLY hope this works. Her head popped out into the cool night air. I better get going quickly, because they are going to get in here soon. She shoved her shoulders out the whole, then tried to fold her wings. But as she was just slipping through, jagged talons grabbed her midsection. She screeched loudly in surprise, and tried to scrabble out. She almost got free when she heard Deathrock’s voice, “Help me, idiots!” Pelican’s webbed feet grabbed her tail, while Star’s burning claws tore at her back. Clover screech again, seeing around six dragons in the air. The smallest, who was in the lead, turned, and he seemed to talk to his companions. “HELP ME!!!” she roared out in pain, Star’s talons burying into the lower parts of her wings now. “Come on, we got to shut her up before someone hears her!” snarled Pelican. “I’m trying!” argued Star, “But she is stronger than I thought.” Deathrock just snarled, his dagger-like talons digging in between her scales. Clover roared again, and it seemed like the loudest sound she’d ever heard. In surprise, she lost her grip on the rocks, and she came tumbling down. “Finally!” roared Deathrock, pinning her down, she struggled, then remembered her poisonous teeth. “Don’t you think about, brat!” growled Star, “Otherwise I’ll fry you!” Clover sighed, giving up, as Pelican came into the room with iron chains. Clover yelped in fear, trying to make the sound as loud as possible so hopefully the dragons outside would hear. “Hurry up, slow-slug!” growled Deathrock. Pelican ran as fast as his short legs would let him, and he threw the still painfully hot chains around her snout. The smell of melting scales filled the air, nearly choking Clover. Pelican through the chains around her legs and midsection, the wrapped it around a stalagmite. Star let out a burst of flame, and the chains’ ends forged together. “We should leave her to rot,” growled Deathrock. “No, let’s wait until tomorrow morning, then kill her. She wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.” Pelican argued. “No, we should kill her now!” roared Star. “Not if I can help it!” said a voice from above. The four dragons turned- well, the three dragons turned and Clover looked up-to see a small SeaWing poking his head through the Sky Hole. The Hole was now much bigger, and Clover’s eyes widened in confusion. The guardians looked confused too, and Pelican finally said, “Deep, what in the three moons are you doing here? Go back to Tide and Eel.” “Too late, Pops,” Said the replied Deep, showing a toothy grin, “I’m here, and mother sent me here. And here I am!” Pelican’s jaw dropped, “Well, you came at the wrong time. As you can see, I’m in the middle of a killing here.” Deep replied, smiling bigger, “Mother sent me here to save the RainWing princess, blob-brain! She knew your messages were fake.” When Pelican remained silent, Deep continued, “Tide thought there was something up with the messages. ‘The princess is doing perfectly!’ ‘She is learning EVERYTHING!’ ‘She is in perfect health. We haven’t touched a scale of her’s.’ Stupid move, Dad. Do you think our Queen lets stupid blobfish-brained dragons remain in the Council? Certainly not! There was something fishy about it, and it wasn’t just your breath. Just before I left, Tide said, ‘What a silly squid-brain he is! Does he think I have no brain at all? Well, if it was true, it’d be better to have NO brain then PELICAN’S BRAIN!’ Wow, that’s the best quote ever in Pyrrhia!” Pelican hissed, “If you came to rescue her, where is your reinforcements? You dwarfy thing couldn’t defeat Star, nor all of us.” “Oh, I got reinforcements, don’t worry. I wanted to make it fair.” Deep landed onto the floor of the cave, and five other dragonets fell awkwardly onto the ground. That’s the group I saw! Thought Clover as a large NightWing stood up, scattering the other dragonets. “Ha, that’s your ‘army’?” taunted Star, “Wow, I’m scared. Watch out! It’s the Baby Dragonet Play Group!” The NightWing hissed, “We are tougher than you think!” She spread her large lavender and black wings, hissing in a threating way. A small SkyWing crept from behind a IceWing, his oversized wings raised. “Talon!” gasped Star, “What are you doing here? You should be back with Raven!” “Father,” the small SkyWing said, trembling, “She. . she’s in Queen Cloud’s prison. And so is Hawk and Storm. Falcon is, too.” Star went pale, “F. .Falcon? No, no no! I must go back! Queen Cloud can have me instead!” He threw his arms around Talon, but the dragonet pulled away, embarrassed. Deathrock rumbled, “And Volcanictooth, you should be back with Scorchflame and Flametalons!” The NightWing dragonet interrupted, “No, father! I’ve come to save the RainWing princess. You betrayed me and my brother and my mother! My mother!” She arched her neck, like she was going to strike her father. “They are both in the NightWing prison, because you betrayed Queen Shadebringer! And it’s all your fault!” Volcanictooth leaped at Deathrock, breathing fire into his face. He howled, and the fight began. A SandWing raised her poisonous tail, driving Pelican back, who looked uncertain. “You leave Clover alone!” she hissed in his face, and Clover saw Pelican try to duck away. Coward, she thought with a hiss. She then wondered when she’ll be unchained, if ever. Star was cornered by his own son, Talon, and the IceWing. Who knew my guardians could be over powered by dragonets? Clover thought as she watched them fight. Wait, where’s the little SeaWing? She then suddenly saw Deep and a MudWing creep out from behind the fighting dragons, then slithered over to Clover. “Don’t worry, we will save you!” the SeaWing whispered fiercely. The MudWing tried to breath fire at the chains, but only a little flame came out, and she coughed. “Too cold tonight,” the MudWing wheezed, then she cleared her throat, “Deep, I’ll get Desert. She’s about to kill your dad, you know.” “Wait, Cattail,” said Deep, “Let me. Keep trying, or maybe soothe Clover. She’s probably freaking out by now!” And with that, Deep ran over to the SandWing, Desert, Clover guessed. Cattail tried a couple more times to melt the chains, but they all ended in hacking fits. Finally, the large MudWing stopped, and she turned to Clover. “You probably know this already, but I’m Cattail. I really wish I could get those chains off your snout. Your poor snout! I’d hate it if that happened to me. But my mom is too nice. Instead of letting me and my siblings go off on our own, like most MudWings, she’s raised us. It’s not too hard; she’s an awesome hunter, and there is only me, my brother Alligator, and my sister Weed. Alligator is our bigwings, which is the first hatched MudWing in a nest, and he or she protect the others. I bet you don’t really understand; you’re not a MudWing, and you’ve been stuck in this cave. . hmm, I think the scrolls said four and a half years, I believe. The story of the missing RainWing princess is a required reading in school.” Clover saw Deep and Desert come back, with Pelican lying on the ground, blood pouring from his heart. Clover gasped- well, she tried to gasp, but her snout was still chained. Desert began to breath fire at the end of the chains, as far away from Clover’s body as she could. The chains sizzled, becoming weaker, but not fully breaking. “We need Talon’s or Volcanictooth’s help!” yelped the SandWing. “Well, Star is looking pretty weak; Snowflake could handle him alone,” Deep said, and he called the tiny SkyWing over, and he bounded over to them. Without speaking, Talon and Desert began to breath fire onto the weaker part of the chains, and it soon snapped. Clover stood up immediately, but staggered from The scratches on her back, wings, tail, and midsection and the burn marks of the chains. She yelped in pain, then slumped back down on the floor. “I can’t get out of here if I can’t fly!” she whispered, her jaw aching. “Oh, yes we can!” Deep said. “I know a way we can go without you having to fly. Well, I know there is one, but I don’t know where exactly. We’ll make them tell us.” He pointed at Star, who was pinned down by Snowflake, the IceWing, and Deathrock, who was facing off with his daughter. Cattail pointed out gently but firmly, “Deep, I don’t think Clover could walk far enough! She must be weak from those. . those monsters!” She glared at Pelican, lying dead on the ground, Star, who had his throat pressed down on by the IceWing, and Deathrock, who was cornered by his daughter, trying to dodge her blasts of flame. “Desert, go help Volcanictooth,” instructed Deep, “I’ll go help Snowflake. Talon, you and Cattail stay with Clover. Tell me if anything bad happens.” Talon nodded, and Desert and Deep raced off. Clover was now barely conscious, dizzy with pain. Cattail was going to run the side of her talon gently across her back, then remembered the deep gashes and drew back. “Poor, poor thing,” she whispered to Talon, and the small male nodded, a worried look in his eyes. Her vision becoming fuzzy, and everything was beginning to blacken. Cattail saw her looking dizzy, and she shouted, “Deep! Come here, quick! Clover is passing out!” The small blue dragonet ran over, said something that Clover didn’t hear, and Clover blacked out. Chapter Three- Escape and the Journey to Healing Clover woke up to feel that she was laying on a dragon’s back- no, two dragon’s backs, and they were walking. She opened an eye and saw that Cattail and Volcanictooth’s backs. They were walking towards a forest, and as her vision cleared Clover saw that the group had moved pretty far away from the mountains. Cattail turned her head, saw Clover was awake, and she said to Deep, who was in the lead, “Clover is awake. Can we take a break? She is heavy!” Deep protested, “We are almost at the forest! We can get there!” “Maybe you can,” muttered Volcanictooth under her breath. Clover looked at her back and saw mud was smeared all over her wounds. She cringed, wondering why they had put slimy mud all over her. But her wounds did feel better for some reason. The dragonets soon got to the forest, which turned out to be only a grove of trees. “It’s better than nothing,” said Deep. “We’ll rest tonight, and half of tomorrow. Hopefully Clover will be able to walk by then.” “Deep! You are too impatient,” Cattail replied, “She isn’t going to be able to walk properly for days. Weeks! Maybe even months!” Deep said, “Well, let’s at least get out of SkyWing territory. Star is fleeing to the palace, and Queen Cloud won’t be happy. She’d get livid if an escaped prisoner is in the Sky Kingdom.” Cattail sighed, “Alright, but me and Volcanictooth will have to keep carrying Clover.” Talon argued, “We should get out of the Sky Kingdom as soon as possible. We should leave before dawn; Queen Cloud has dawn patrols, looking for me and Star. Although she will be happy to have Star, she’ll still be looking for me. And if she finds me with you, she’ll keep you all for hostage. Especially the RainWing princess.” Deep nodded, “Okay, first thing in the morning, we’ll be outta here.” Cattail and Volcanictooth laid down slowly and carefully, and let Clover slide of their backs, on the opposite side of her wounds. Clover sighed, and she looked at Deep and said, “Why is there mud all over me?” A hint of a hiss was in her voice; not because of anger, but of the pain. “Cattail said it heals wounds. She is more of a doctor type dragon than me, and I’m trying to trust somebody. I can’t trust my dad. Well, I won’t need to, now that he is dead.” There wasn’t a hint of regret in his voice, Clover noticed. Cattail interrupted her thoughts,” My mother taught me and my sibs about doctoring wounds.” Clover nodded, and Volcanictooth said, “I’m going to go hunt,” and she flew off, Desert following. Deep said, “Should we make a fire? I mean, the SkyWings could see it, but we got to keep Clover warm.” Talon replied, “We can surround her, with Desert nearest to her. The heat that radiates from her scales can warm up Clover.” The IceWing, Snowflake, agreed, “I’ll be by someone else; I’m cold, especially with my ice breath.” She smiled a toothy grin, and Talon snorted in amusement, “You can sleep by me,” he smiled shyly at the large IceWing. Snowflake flashed another smile, and Talon looked away, embarrassed. Desert and Volcanictooth came back, carry two deer, a moose, and an elk. “Awesome catch,” praised Deep, “Let’s eat.” Cattail grabbed the moose, dragged it over to Clover, and began to tear away pieces and nudged them to Clover. The RainWing ate them ravenously, and Desert sighed, then looked at Talon, Volcanictooth, and Deep angrily, “Your dads STARVED HER!” Volcanictooth replied, “Not my fault.” “I know, but still!” growled Desert, her voice rising, “But they are AWFUL!!!” Talon looked around wildly, “Shush!” he whispered fiercely, “I hear wing beats!” All the dragons paused, and the sound of many, many strong wing beats. “We gotta get outta here!” hissed Talon, and all the dragonets jumped up. Well, Clover tried to get up, but she was still too weak; she could hardly stand. Volcanictooth and Cattail nudged Clover onto their backs, and they began to run as fast as they could without hurting Clover. The wing beats grew closer, and Deep hissed, “Me, Desert, and Snowflake will distract them. Talon, you keep running with Cattail, Volcanictooth, and Clover. The SkyWings would fly two times faster if you went with us,” Deep added as Talon opened his jaws to protest. The little red and orange dragonet snapped them shut, and he began to run, with Cattail and Volcanictooth following. Clover heard Deep roar, “Hey, stinky SkyWings! We’re over here!” Talon grumbled, “I’ll get him for that!” Deep continued, “Can’t catch us, squid-brains!” Talon let out a rumbling sound, but continued. After what seemed to be hours of running, Deep, Snowflake, and Desert caught up. “They’re all confused now! They thought we went towards the Kingdom of Sand!” Snowflake nodded, flashing yet another toothy grin, and Desert nodded, her forked black tongue flicking between her teeth. “Well, let’s keep moving,” said Deep, “We are almost to the Kingdom of the Sea. There, my aunt can get Octopus and Seaweed to help Clover.” Clover asked, “Who is your aunt? She must be very rich and high in the ranks.” Deep puffed his chest out proudly, “Oh, she is very rich and high in the ranks. My aunt is the queen.” Chapter Four- The Kingdom of the Sea Clover gasped, “The queen? Does that make you a prince or something? Is Pelican the queen’s brother?” Deep replied, “I’m pretty sure I’m a prince. And no, Pelican is- I mean was- not Queen Pearl’s brother. What an awful thought! My mother, Tide, is the queen’s sister. Pelican was a soldier of the army, but after hearing that abductors were needed to capture you, he jumped to the job.” “And your mother was okay with this?” asked Clover. “Dad said that there was trouble in the Rain Kingdom and you needed to be protected for a while. My mom started getting suspicious, since you’d been here for, like, four and a half years. With her extremely clever mind, Tide got stupid idiotic Pelican to give information.” Talon said, “We should get to sleep if we want to move quickly tomorrow.” Volcanictooth snorted, “Alright, alright, bossy scales.” The NightWing and Cattail lowered themselves slowly, letting Clover slide off their backs gently onto the ground. Clover curled up, trying to avoid her wounds contacting the ground. Desert laid down, pressing her yellow scales against Clover’s ever-changing ones. Clover sighed happily; for the first time in a long time, maybe the first time ever, she felt safe. Deep laid down on her other side, with Cattail beside him. Volcanictooth laid on Desert’s other side, and Talon and Snowflake curled up besides Clover’s tail. Clover fell asleep immediately, and as the sun went down, Clover felt happy for the first time in many years. ************* Clover woke up to Talon’s slightly squeaky, bossy voice. “Guys, it’s past dawn! Let’s go let’s go let’s go!” Deep grumbled, “Okay, bossy-scales, who’s the leader around here?” Snowflake replied instead, “You are.” With a quick glance at Talon, who glared at her, she added,” Talon would be a good one, too. But Clover is gonna be leader when she is healed, since she is princess, right?” I’d make a horrible leader, Clover thought while Deep snorted in amusement. Cattail and Volcanictooth crouched besides Clover, and Desert helped nudge Clover onto the NightWing and MudWing’s backs. Snowflake stumbled sleepily forward, nearly tripping over her own tail and treading Volcanictooth’s. “Ouch, watch it, big claws,” the female NightWing grumbled. “All ready?” Deep asked, and when everyone nodded, Deep continued, “Okay, let’s get going!” The small SeaWing flapped his wings excitedly. “Me and Desert will scout above, while Talon leads the rest of you on the ground.” The SeaWing flapped his wings again, but harder now, so he could hover in the air. He flew higher, with Desert following. Talon started walking, everyone else behind, and as he did so he talked, half to himself. “The Kingdom of the Sea is pretty far off still, but the sea itself is not too far off. We could rest on islands; there are a whole bunch of them.” The tiny SkyWing continued to mutter to himself.